how do you keep cool side temps right?

I'm always battling my snake's cool side's temperature! The warm side is fine, possibly even a tiny bit too high sometimes, but the cool side gets colder than it should. The UTH isn't too small because it covers a bit less than half of the cage. The ambient temp likes to stay on the low side too sometimes and it very annoying. I can't raise the UTHs heat though because then the warm side will be too hot! She has three hides, a large water bowl, and a rock outcrop thing that she climbs on. Her enclosure is a large sterilite tub. I can't remember the exact measurements but it is 38 gallons and very long. It isn't very tall at all and I use two layers of paper towels as substrate. I'm going to be switching her to a slightly larger glass tank soon and I don't want this issue with the glass either. I will be getting a bigger UTH for the glass tank though, don't worry. Any suggestions? As an example here are the temperatures I just recorded with my temp gun:
Warm side: 93 on the warmest spot
middle: 75
Cool side: 68 on the coolest spot

I wouldn't worry too much about a spot of 68 on the far end. Don't let that 93 get any warmer that is a too warm. This time of year my females with seek out the 70 degree end of the tub and 'chill' out there. ;)

I do find that using reptibark, or mulch spreads out my temps a little better. you can also move the UTH more towards the middle rather than the far end to keep the ends

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

I like Deborah's idea, that way you can also bring down the 93 a bit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by piedlover79

I wouldn't worry too much about a spot of 68 on the far end. Don't let that 93 get any warmer that is a too warm. This time of year my females with seek out the 70 degree end of the tub and 'chill' out there. ;)

I do find that using reptibark, or mulch spreads out my temps a little better. you can also move the UTH more towards the middle rather than the far end to keep the ends

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by piedlover79

I like Deborah's idea, that way you can also bring down the 93 a bit.

---

i agree, the 93 is high and i would like to bring it down. that's why i love the idea that deborah has! and it's very convenient too because i'm about to buy a new, larger UTH for the glass tank i'm getting so i can use the old one for the cool side! and i have a spare T-Stat too. and thank you piedlover79! i was worried because i thought that she would end up getting an RI or something, so i'm glad it isn't as bad as i thought.

You gotta remember too, a UTH will only heat a spot on the floor, not the air. If you are looking to heat the air, you need to either use a CHE, RHP or raise the rooms ambient that the snake cage is in. A lot of people don't realize this and assume a UTH will work fine alone in a cold house.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sauzo

You gotta remember too, a UTH will only heat a spot on the floor, not the air. If you are looking to heat the air, you need to either use a CHE, RHP or raise the rooms ambient that the snake cage is in. A lot of people don't realize this and assume a UTH will work fine alone in a cold house.

---

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air ;), additionally the floor temp where the BP spend is time is what truly matter, I will even go further by saying that the animal body temp is what matter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air ;), additionally the floor temp where the BP spend is time is what truly matter, I will even go further by saying that the animal body temp is what matter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

---

I do agree with you on the snakes temp mattering but I personally don't see how a UTH could heat the ambient above a couple degrees at most. I mean if the snake room is 75F, the best you could hope for with a UTH would maybe be 77F. This is assuming the cage is a small cage that is well insulated and you aren't using a fluorescent light which will heat the enclosure a couple more degrees. I don't really use UTH so maybe there is something I am missing as I only use RHPs in PVC cages and CHEs in glass cages.

From what I have seen from people who use UTHs exclusively like in racks is they have an oil heater in the reptile room controlling the overall ambient temps and the UTH is just creating the 90F hot spot on the floor for digestion.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

---

I just did this in my new rack I built. It definitely helps quite a bit. My room (I don't have a snake room) is fairly large and stays around 68-70 degrees. I still wasn't happy, so I got a small oil filled radiator style heater and put it about 3' in front of my rack. Now my cool side ambient temps are about 77. My UTH on the cool side is set to 81.

Quote:

---

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air

---

Not exactly true. If you take a heating blanket, turn it on high and put your hand over it, you'll barely feel anything unless you are directly touching it. Sure there is some heat coming off of the UTH, but it isnt nearly enough to maintain ambient temps.

Sure, another UTH with cool side temps will work because the snake will be in contact with it, but it is different from raising the ambient temp.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HanabiraAsashi

Not exactly true. If you take a heating blanket, turn it on high and put your hand over it, you'll barely feel anything unless you are directly touching it. Sure there is some heat coming off of the UTH, but it isnt nearly enough to maintain ambient temps.

Sure, another UTH with cool side temps will work because the snake will be in contact with it, but it is different from raising the ambient temp.

---

I agree with you and Deborah. I'm sure there is a more scientific explanation, but I think it all depends on surface and enclosure areas. For example, my setup... a 15qt tub that I use the lid with, and it's in a rack. I have 4" heat tape on bottom at the rear, and a separate strip at the front. My heat tape covers (in total) probably 75% or more of the bottom of my tub. My front is set around 81 degrees and the rear is set at 90 degrees. This will keep the ambient temps in MY tub in MY room around the high 70's. Now, if I turn off the heat tape under the front half of my tub, the ambient drop to 70 degrees. Only a few degrees difference, as suggested, but in this case, a few degrees can make a difference. If I put my hand into that tub, I can feel the warmth inside the tub.

Now, on the other hand, take the same setup, same heat tape, but with a 32qt tub, and there is almost no change to ambient air regardless of what the heat tape is set to. It's just how much surface area the heat has to dissipate. At least that's my very unprofessional opinion. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HanabiraAsashi

Not exactly true. If you take a heating blanket, turn it on high and put your hand over it, you'll barely feel anything unless you are directly touching it. Sure there is some heat coming off of the UTH, but it isnt nearly enough to maintain ambient temps.

Sure, another UTH with cool side temps will work because the snake will be in contact with it, but it is different from raising the ambient temp.

---

The temperature of your hand is going to be much higher than the desired temperature range for a cool side of the enclosure. You wouldn't be able to feel the temperature change anyways. Don't rely on your hand to measure heat. Also, you have to consider the ratio of overall floor space to the space covered by a UTH. Unless your heating blanket is 1/3 the size of your room, the analogy doesn't really work.

The heat produced by a UTH does not simply stay on the floor of the enclosure. It dissipates to regions of lesser heat energy. With an insulated enclosure, and provided the room isn't below ~70 deg you would be surprised at how much the UTH contributes to achieving appropriate ambient temps.

A cold side in the low 70s high 60s isn't an emergency. I often find my snakes preferably choosing spots in the enclosure in the 70s. The WHOLE point of providing regulated heat in a reptile enclosure is to allow the reptile to achieve a given body temperature. If they have the means to do that, that's all that matters physiologically.

The problem I have had with using UTH as the only source of heat is when the ambient room temp gets to a certain point the UTH has to get too hot to keep the air in the enclosure warm enough. Using a ceramic heat emitter from the top helps with this and it is out of the reach of the snake so you do not have to worry about the reptile getting burned. Obviously this would not work for a rack system but I have had a lot of luck with this in the glass tank terrariums we set up. We use a UTH under the water dish (outside of the tank) then place the heat emitter above the water dish. This helps keep humidity up as well as keeping nice stable temps on the warm side. Also, when you switch to a glass tank you may need to use some Plexiglas to cover the majority of the screen lid.
A lot of people do not like glass enclosures due to humidity and temp issues but once you get them dialed in they work great and make great display pieces.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JoshSloane

The temperature of your hand is going to be much higher than the desired temperature range for a cool side of the enclosure. You wouldn't be able to feel the temperature change anyways. Don't rely on your hand to measure heat. Also, you have to consider the ratio of overall floor space to the space covered by a UTH. Unless your heating blanket is 1/3 the size of your room, the analogy doesn't really work.

The heat produced by a UTH does not simply stay on the floor of the enclosure. It dissipates to regions of lesser heat energy. With an insulated enclosure, and provided the room isn't below ~70 deg you would be surprised at how much the UTH contributes to achieving appropriate ambient temps.

A cold side in the low 70s high 60s isn't an emergency. I often find my snakes preferably choosing spots in the enclosure in the 70s. The WHOLE point of providing regulated heat in a reptile enclosure is to allow the reptile to achieve a given body temperature. If they have the means to do that, that's all that matters physiologically.

---

Im not relying on it, but how else are you going to feel how much heat is emitting from it? You cant use a temp gun to measure the air 6 inches from a heating blanket. As I said (and Treeguy backs up), sure a small amount of heat will rise, but very little. As he showed, when he doesnt have his UTH on, the temp drops by 1 degree, meaning when its on, it raises 1 degree. What happens if the room's ambient temp drops by 5 degrees? The UTH isnt going to make up for that.

All im saying is, it will work because to be fair, the snake is still touching the lower temp UTH, but just saying it will have a significant impact on your ambient temps is just not true. I wouldnt risk this method if you live in a colder area and your room can be 50 degrees at times.

You're wrong. And you can use a thermometer with a probe to measure temperatures anywhere in an enclosure. With a tub setup, an enclosed rack and the appropriate size heat tape that is all you need provided your room doesn't drop below 70.

Call RBI and they will tell you the same thing.

While UTH's are great for creating hot spots I don't believe they raise ambient temps by much at all. I would go with a RHP, CHE, or heat bulb to boost the ambient temps a bit.